sents an earnest plea for the continuance
of this plan. He recommends the author-
ization of at least one battle ship and six
torpedo boats.
While I am distinctly in favor of con-
sistently pursuing the policy we have in-
augurated of building up a thorough and
efficient Navy, I can not refrain from the
suggestion that the Congress should care-
fully take into account the number of un-
finished vessels on our hands and the de-
pleted condition of our Treasury in con-
sidering the propriety of an appropriation
at this time to begin new work.
The method of employing mechanical la-
bor at navy-yards through hoards of labor,
and making efficiency the sole test by
which laborers are employed and contin-
ued, is producing the best results, and the
Secretary is earnestly devoting himself to
its development. Attention is invited to the
statements of his report in regard to the
workings of the system.
The Interior Department.
The Secretary of the Interior has the
supervision of so many important subjects
that his report is of especial value and
interest. .
On the 30th day of June, 1893, there were
on the pension rolls 966,012 names, an in-
crease of $9,944 over the number on the
rolls June 30, 1802. Of these there were 17
widows and daughters of Revolutionary
soldiers, 86 survivors of the war of 1812,
5,425 widows of soldiers of that war, 21,518
survivors and wiows of the Mexican war,
8,882 survivors and widows of Indian wars,
284 army nurses, and 475,645 survivors, .and
widows and children of deceased soldiers
and sailors of the war of the rebellion.
The latter number represents those pension-
ed on account of disabilities or death re-
sulting from army and navy service. The
number of persons remaining on the rolls
June 30, 1893, who were pensioned under
the act of June 27, 1890, which allows pen-
sions on account of death and disability not
chargeable to army service, was 459,155.
The number added to the rolls during the
year was 123,634, and the number dropped
was 33,600. The first payment on pensions
allowed during the year amounted to $33,-
756,549.98. This includes arrears, or the
accumulation between the time from which
the allowance of pension dates and the time
of actually granting the certificate.
suspended Pension Payments.
Although the law of 1890 permits pensions
for disabilities not related to military
service, yet as a requisite to its benefits
a disability must exist incapacitating ap-
plicants “from the performance of manual
labor to such a degree as to render them
unable to earn a support.” The execution
of this law in its early stages does not
seem to have been in accord with its true
intention; but toward the close of the last
administration an authoritative construction
was given to the statute, and since that
time this construction has been followed.
This has had the effect of limiting the
operation of the law to its intended pur-
pose. The discovery having been made that
many names had been put upon the pension
roll by means of wholesale and gigantic
frauds, the Commissioner suspended pay-
ments upon a number of pensions which
seemed to be fraudulent or unauthorized
pending a complete examination, giving
notire to the pensioners, in order that they
might have an opportunity to establish, if
possible, the justice of their claims not-
without apparent invalidity.
This, I understand, is the practice which
has for a long time prevailed in the Pen-
sion Bureau; but after entering upon these
recent investigations the Commissioner
modified this rule so as not to allow, until
after a complete examination, interference
with the payment of a pension apparently
not altogether void, but which merely had
been fixed at a rate higher than that au-
thanimad hv law.
ov ay meee
rolls is a wicked imposition upon the kindly
sentiment in which pensions have their
origin; every fraudulent pensioner has be-
come a bad citizen; every false oath in sup-
port of a pension has made perjury more
common, and false and undeserving pen-
sioners rob the people not only of their
money, but of the patriotic sentiment which
the survivors of a war, fought for the pres-
ervation of the Union, ought to inspire.
Thousands of neighborhoods have their
well-known . fraudulent pensioners, and re-
cent developments by the Bureau estab-
lish appalling conspiracies to accomplish
pension frauds. By no means the least
wrong done is to brave and deserving pen-
sioners, who certainly ought not to be con-
demned to such association.
Those who attempt in the line of duty
to rectify these wrongs shculd not be ac-
cused of enmity or indifference to the
claims of honest veterans.
The sum expended on account of pen-
sions for the year ending June 30, 1893,
was $156,740,467.14.
The Commissioner estimates that $165,-
000,000 will be required to pay pensions
during the year ending June 30, 1894.
The Indians.
The condition of the Indians and their
ultimate fate are subjects which are re-
lated to a sacred duty.of the Government,
and which strongly appeal to the sense of
justice and the sympathy of our people.
Our Indians number about 248,000. Most
of them are located on 161 reservations,
containing 86,116,631 acres of land. About
110,000 of these Indians have, to a large de-
gree, adopted civilized customs. Lands in
severalty have been allotted to many of
them. Such allotments have been made to
10,000 individuals during the last fiscal year,
embracing about 1,000,000 acres. The num-
ber of Indian Government schools open dur-
ing the year was 195, an increase of 12
over the preceding year. Of this total 170
were on reservations, of which 73 were
boarding schools and 97 were day schools.
Twenty boarding schools and 5 day schools
supported by the Government were not lo-
cated on reservations. The total number of
Indian children enrolled during the year as
attendants of all schools was 21,138, an in-
crease of 1,251 over the enrollment for the
previous year. .
I am sure that secular education and
moral and religious teaching must be im-
portant factors in any effort to save the
Indian and lead him to civilization. I be-
lieve, too, that the relinquishment of tribal
relations and the holding of land in sever-
alty may, in favorable conditions, aid this
consummation. It seems to me, however,
that allotments of land in severalty ought
to be made with great care and circum-
spection. If hastily done, before the In-
dian knows its meaning, while yet he has
little or no idea of tilling a farm and no
conception of thrift, there. is great danger
that a reservation life in tribal relations
may be exchanged for the pauperism of
civilization, instead of its independence and
elevation.
The solution of the Indian problem de-
pends very largely upon good administra-
tion. The personal fitness of agents and
their adaptability to the peculiar duty of
caring for their wards, is of the utmost
importance.
The law providing that, except in especial
cases, Army officers shall be detailed as In-
dian agents, it is hoped will prove a suc-
cessful experiment,
There is danger of great abuses creeping
into the prosecution of claims for Indian
depredations, and I recommend that every
possible safeguard be provided against the
enforcement of unjust and fictitious claims
of this description.
The appropriations on account of the In-
dian Bureau for the year ending June 30,
1894, amount to $7,954,962.99, a decrease as
compared with the year preceding it of
$387,131.95.
The Public Lands.
The vast area of land which, but a short
time ago, constituted the public domain is
rapidly falling into private hands. It is
certain that in the transfer the beneficent
intention of the government to supply from
its domain homes to the industrious and
worthy home-seekers is often frustrated.
Though the speculator, who stands with
extortionate purpose between the land office
and those who, with their families, are in-
vited by the Government to settle on the
public lands, is a despicable character who
ought not to be tolerated, yet it is difficult
to thwart his schemes. The recent opening
to settiement of the lands in the Cherokee
Outlet, embracing an area of 6,500,000 acres,
notwithstanding the utmost care in framing
the regulations governing the selection of
locations and notwithstanding the presence
of United States troops, furnished an exhi-
bition, though perhaps in a modified de-
gree, of the mad scramble, the violence,
and the fraudulent occupation which have
accompanied previous openings of public
land.
I concur with the Secretary in the belief
that these outrageous incidents can not be
entirely prevented without a change in the
laws on the subject, and I hope his recom-
mendations in that direction will be favor-
ably considered.
I especially commend to the attention of
the Congress the statements contained in
the Secretary’s report concerning forestry.
The time has come when efficient measures
should be taken for the preservation of our
forests from indiscriminate and remediless
destruction. :
The Department of Agriculture.
The report of the Secretary of Agriculture
will be found exceedingly interesting, es-
pecially to that large part of our citizens
intimately concerned in agricultural occu-
pations.
On the 7th day of March, 1893, there were
upon its pay rolls 2,430 employes. This
number has been reduced to 1,850 persons.
In view of a depleted public Treasury and
the imperative demand of the people for
economy in the administration of their
Government, the Secretary has entered
upon the task of rationally reducing ex-
penditures by the elimination from the pay
rolls of all persons not needed for an effi-
cient conduct of the affairs of the Depart-
raent.
During the first quarter of the present
year the expenses of the Department aggre-
gated $345,876.76, as against $402,012.42 for
the corresponding pericd of the fiscal year
ending June 30, 1893. The Secretary makes
apparent his intention to continue this rate
of reduction by submitting estimates for the
next fiscal year less by $994,280 than those
for the present year.
Among the heads of divisions in this de-
partment the changes have been exceedingly
few. Three vacancies occurring from
death and resignations have been filled by
the promotion of assistants in the same
divisions.
These promotions of experienced and
faithful assistants have not only been in
the interest of efficient work, but have
suggested to those in the department who
look for retention and promotion that merit
and devotion to duty are their best reliance.
The amount appropriated for the bureau
of animal industry for the current fiscal
year is $850,000; the estimate for the ensu-
ing year is $700,000.
The regulations of 1892 concerning Texas
fever have been enforced during the last
year, and the large stock yards of the coun-
try have been kept free from infection.
Occasional local outbreaks have been large-
lr ssobh ne oeonld have heen effectually
AUDID,; © Wasa ser ase se = saan
gerous to human life than pleuro-pneumo-
nia, is still prevalent. Investigations have
been made during the past year as to the
means of its communication and the meth-
od of its correct diagnosis. Much progress
has been made in this direction by the stu-
dies of the division of animal pathology,
but the work ought to be extended, in co-
operation with local authorities, until the
danger to human life arising from this
cause is reduced to a minimum.
The number of animals arriving from
Canada during the year and inspected by
bureau officers was 462,092, and the number
from trans-Atlantic countries was 1,297.
No contagious diseases were found among
imported animals,
The total number of inspections of cate
tle for export during the past fiscal year
was 611,542. The exports show a falling
off of about 25 per cent from the preceding
year, the decrease occurring entirely in the
last half of the year. This suggests that
tne falling off may have been largely due
to an increase in the price of American ex-
port cattle.
During the year ending June 30, 1893,
exports of inspected pork aggregated 20,-
677,410 pounds as against 38,152,874 pounds
for the preceding year. The falling off in
this export was not confined, however, to
inspected pork, the total quantity exported
for 1892 being 665,490,616 pounds, while in
1893 it was only 527,308,695 pounds.
I join the Secretary in recommending that
hereafter each applicant for the position of
inspector or assistant inspector in the bu-
reau of animal industry be required, as a
condition precedent to his appointment, to
exhibit to the United States civil service
commission his diploma from an established
regular and reputable veterinary college,
and that this be supplemented by such an
examination in veterinary science as the
commission may prescribe.
The exports of agricultural products from
the United States for the fiscal year ending
June 30, 1892, attained the enormous figure
of $800,000,000, in rouna numbers, being
78.7 per cent of our total exports. In the
last fiscal year this aggregate was greatly
reduced, but, nevertheless, reached 615 mill-
ions, being 75.1 per cent of all American
commodities exported. .
Agricultural Exports.
A review of our agricultural exports with
special reference to their destination will
show that in almost every line the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ab-
sorbs by far the largest proportion. Of the
cattle the total exports aggregated in value
for the fiscal year ending June 380, 1893,
$26,000,000, of which Great Britain took con-
siderably over $25,000,000, Of beef products
of all kinds our total exports were $28,000, -
000, of which Great Britain took $24,000,000.
Of pork products the total exports were
$84,000,000, of which ‘Great Britain took
$63,000,000. In bread-stuffs, cotton, and mi-
nor products like proportions sent to the
same destination are shown.
The work of the Statistical Division of
the Department of Agriculture deals with
all that relates to the economics of farm-
ing.
The main purpose of its monthly reports
is to keep the farmers informed as fully as
possible of all matters having any influence
upon the world’s markets, in which their
products find sale. Its publications relate
especially to the commercial side of farm-
ing.
It is therefore of profound importance
and vital concern to the farmers of the
United States, who represent nearly one-
half of our population, and also of direct
interest to the whole country, that the
work of this division be efficiently perform-
ed and that the information it has gath-
ered be promptly diffused.
It is a matter for congratulation to know
that the Secretary will not spare any effort
to make this part of his work thoroughly
useful.
In the year 1839 the Congress appropri-
ated $1,000, to be taken from the Patent Of-
fice funds, for the purpose of collecting and
distributing rare and improved varieties of
seeds, and for prosecuting agricultural in-
vestigations and procuring agricultural sta-
tistics. From this small beginning the Seed
Division of the Department of Agriculture
has grown to its present unwieldy and un-
justifiably extravagant proportions.
During the last fiscal year the cost of
seeds purchased was $66,548.61. The re-
mainder of an appropriation of $135,000 was
expended in putting them up and distribut-
ing them. It surely never could have en-
tered the minds of those who first sanction-
ed appropriations of public money for the
purchase of new and improved varieties of
seeds for gratuitous distribution that from
this would grow large appropriations for the
purchase and distribution by members of
Congress of ordinary seeds, bulbs, and cut-
tings which are common in all the States
and Territories and everywhere easily ob-
tainable at low prices.
Experiment Stations.
In each State and Territory an agricul-
tural experiment station has been establish-
ed. These stations, by their very character
and name, are the proper agencies to ex-
periment with and test new varieties of
seeds; and yet this indiscriminate and waste-
ful distribution by the legislation and legis-
lators continues, answering no purpose unless
it be to remind constituents that their repre-
sentatives are willing to remember them
with gratuities at public cost.
Under the sanction of existing legislation
there was sent out from the Agricultural
Department during the last fiscal year
enough of cabbage seed to plant 19,200 acres
of land, a sufficient quantity of beans to
plant 4,000 acres, beet seed enough to plant
2,500 acres, sweet corn enough to plant
7,800 acres, sufficient cucumber seed to
cover 2,025 acres with vines, and enough
muskmelon and watermelon seeds to plant
2,675 acres. The total quantity of flower
and vegetable seeds thus distributed was
contained in more than nine million pack-
ages, and they were sufficient, if planted, to
cover 89,596 acres of land.
In view of these facts this enormous ex-
penditure without legitimate returns of
benefit ought to be abolished. Anticipating
a consummation so manifestly in the inter-
est of good administration, more than $100,-
000 has been stricken from the estimate
made to cover this object for the year end-
ing June 30, 1895; and the Secretary recom-
mends that the remaining $35,000 of the
estimate be confined strictly. to the purchase
of new and improved varieties of seeds, and
that these be distributed through experi-
ment stations.
Thus the seed will be tested, and after
the test has been completed by the experi-
ment station the propagation of the useful
varieties and the rejection of the valueless
may safely be left to the common sense of
the people.
The Civil Service Law.
The continued intelligent execution of the
civil-service law and the increasing ap-
proval by the people of its operation are
most gratifying. The recent extension of
its limitations and regulations to the em-
ployes at free-delivery post-offices, which
has been honestly and promptly accom-
plished by the Commission, with the hearty
co-operation of the Postmaster-General, is
an immensely important advance in the
usefulness of the system.
I am, if possible, more than ever con-
vinced of the incalculable benefits conferred
by the civil-service law, not only in its ef-
#~nt nnan the nnblic service, but also, what
IUDLIALUE sv sr mem woe =
gains upon our people which has under-
lying it a sentiment of justice and right,
and which at the same time promises bet-
ter administration of their Government.
The law embodying this reform found its
way to our statute book more from fear
of the popular sentiment existing in its
favor than from any love for the reform
itself on the part of legislators; and it has
lived and grown and flourished in spite
of the covert as well as open hostility of
spoilsmen and notwithstanding the queru-
lous impraticability of maay self-consti-
tuted guardians. Beneath all the vagaries
and sublimatad theories which are attracted
to it there underlies this reform a sturdy
common-sense principle not only suited to
this humane sphere, but whose application
our people are more and more recognizing
to be absolutely essential to the most suc-
cessful operation of their Government, if
not to its perpetuity.
It seems to me to be entirely inconsist-
ent with the character of this reform, as
well as with its best enforcement, to oblige
the Commission to rely for clerical assist-
ance upon clerks detailed frcm other De-
partments. There ought not to be such a
condition in any Department that clerks
hired to do work there can be spared to
habitually work at another place; and it
does not accord with a sensible view of
civil-service reform that persons should be
employed on the theory that their labor
is necessary in one Department when in
point of fact their services are devoted to
entirely different work in another Depart-
ment. -
I earnestly urge that the clerks necessary
to carry on the work of the commission be
regularly put upon its roster, and that the
system of obliging the commissioners to
rely upon the services of clerks belonging
to other departments be discontinued. This
ought not to increase the expense to the
government, while it would certainly be
more consistent and add greatly to the effi-
ciency of the commission.
Extravagance in Appropriations.
Economy in public expenditure is a duty
that cannot innocently be neglected by
those intrusted with the control of money
drawn from the people for public uses. It
must be confessed that our apparently end-
less resources, the familiarity of our people
with immense accumulations of wealth, the
grewing sentiment among them that the
expenditure of public money should in some
manner be to their immediate and personal
adavantage, the indirect and almost
stealthy manner in which a large part of
our taxes are exacted, and a degenerated
sense of official accountability have led to
growing extravagance in governmental ap-
prepriations. L332 ;
At this time, when a depleted public treas-
ury confronts us, when many of our people
are engaged in a hard struggle for the
necessaries of life, and when enforced econ-
omy is pressing upon the great mass of
our countrymen, I desire to urge with all
the earnestness at my command that con-
gressional legislation be so limited by strict
economy as to exhibit an appreciation of the
condition of the treasury and a sympathy
with the straitened circumstances of our
fellow-citizens,
The duty of public economy is also of im-
mense importance in its intimate and neces-
sary relation to the task now in hand of
providing revenue to meet government ex-
penditures, and yet reducing the people's
burden of federal taxation.
Tariff Reform.
After a hard struggle tariff reform is di-
rectly before us. Nothing so important
claims our attention and nothing so clearly
presents itself as both an opportunity and
a duty—an opportunity to deserve the grat-
itude of our fellow-citizens and a duty im-
posed upon us by our oft-repeated profes-
sions and by the emphatic mandate of the
people. After full discussion our country-
men have spoken in favor of this reform,
and they have confided the work of its ac-
complishment to the hands of those who are
solemnly pledged to it.
If there is anything in the theory of a
representation in public places of the people
and their desires, if public officers are really
the servants of the people, and if political
promises and professions have any binding
force, our failure to give the relief so long
awaited will be sheer recreancy. Nothing
should intervene to distract our attention or
disturb our effort until this reform is accom-
plished by wise and careful legislation.
While we should staunchly adhere to the
principle that only the necessity of revenue
justifies the imposition of tariff duties and
other Federal taxation, and that they should
be limited by strict economy, we can not
close our eyes to the fact that conditions
have grown up among us which in justice
and fairness call for discriminating care in
the distribution of such duties and taxation
as the emergencies of our Government ac-
tually demand.
Manifestly, if we are to aid the people
directly through tariff reform, one of its
most obvious features should be a reduction
in present tariff charges upon the necessaries
of life. The benefits of such a reduction
would be palpable and substantial, seen and
felt by thousands who would be better fed
and better clothed and better sheltered.
These gifts should be the willing benefac-
tions of a Government whose highest func-
tion is the promotion of the welfare of the
pecple.
Raw Materials.
Not less clesely related to our people's
prosperity and well-being is the removal
of restrictions upon the importation of the
raw materials necessary to our manufac-
tures. The world should be open to our
national ingenuity and enterprise. This can
not be while Federal legislation, through
the imposition of high tariff, forbids to
American manufacturers as cheap materials
as those used by their competitors. It is
quite obvious that the enhancement of the
price of our manufactured products result-
ing from this policy not only confines the
market for these products within our own
borders, to the direct disadvantage of our
manufacturers, but also increases their cost
to our citizens. '
The interests of labor are certainly,
though indirectly, involved in this featurs
of our tariff system. The sharp competi-
tion and active struggle among our manu-
facturers to supply the limited demand for
their goods soon fill the narrow market to
which they are confined. Then follows a
suspension of work in mills and factories,
a discharge of employes, and distress in the
homes of our workingmen.
Even if the often disproved assertion
could be made good that a lower rate of
wages would result from free raw materials
and low tariff duties, the intelligence of our
workingmen leads them quickly to discover
that their steady employment, permitted by
free raw materials, is the most important
factor in their relation to tariff legislation.
A measure has been prepared by the ap-
propriate Congressional committee em-
bodying tariff reform on the lines herein
suggested, which will be promptly submit-
ted for legislative action. It is the result
of much patriotic and unselfish work, and
I believe it deals with its subject consist-
ently and as thoroughly as existing condi-
tions permit.
The Proposed Legislation.
I am satisfied that the reduced tariff du-
ties provided for in the proposed legisla-
tion, added to existing internal-revenue
taxation, will, in the near future, tnuugh
perhaps not immediately, produce sufficient
mamaman tn maat the needs nf the Govern-
Ness OI Ne CouNLrY HUJUSLS ITIL W cue
new tariff schedules, have wisely embraced
in their plan a few additional internal
revenue taxes, including a small tax upon
incomes derived from certain corporate in-
vestments.
These new assessments are not only ab-
solutely just and easily borne, but they
have the further merit of being such as
can be remitted without unfavorable busi-
ness disturbance whenever the necessity of
their imposition no longer exists.
In my great desire for the success of this
measure I can not restrain the suggestion
that its success can only be attained by
means of unselfish counsel on the part of
the friends of tariff reform and as a result
of their willingness to subordinate per-
sonal desires and ambitions to the general
good. The local interests affected by the
proposed reform are so numerous and so
varied that if all are insisted upon the legis-
lation embodying the reform must inevita-
bly fail.
In conclusion, my intense feeling of re-
sponsibility impels me to invoke for the
manifold interests of a generous and con-
fiding people the most scrupulous care and
to pledge my willing support to every legis-
lative effort for the advancement of the
greatness and prosperity of our beloved
country. ‘
GROVER CLEVELAND.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, December 4, 1893.